"Spy Hard" is a song by

"Weird Al" Yankovic Alfred Matthew "Weird Al" Yankovic ( ; born October 23, 1959) is an American comedy musician, writer, and actor. He is best known for writing and performing Comedy music, comedy songs that often Parody music, parody specific songs by contempo ...

used as the theme song to the film of the same name. The song was originally released as a

B-side The A-side and B-side are the two sides of phonograph record, vinyl records and Compact cassette, cassettes, and the terms have often been printed on the labels of two-sided music recordings. The A-side of a Single (music), single usually ...

on the "Gump" single, and was later re-released as its own single. It has never appeared on one of Yankovic's studio albums, but was included as a track on the Medium Rarities disc of his '' Squeeze Box'' boxed set.

Music video

The opening title sequence to the actual film ''

Spy Hard ''Spy Hard'' is a 1996 American Spy film, spy parody film starring Leslie Nielsen (who also executive produced) and Nicollette Sheridan, parodying James Bond and other action films. The introduction to the film is sung by comedy artist "Weird A ...

'' is a

pastiche A pastiche () is a work of visual art, literature, theatre, music, or architecture that imitates the style or character of the work of one or more other artists. Unlike parody, pastiche pays homage to the work it imitates, rather than mocking ...

of the title sequences from the

James Bond The ''James Bond'' franchise focuses on James Bond (literary character), the titular character, a fictional Secret Intelligence Service, British Secret Service agent created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels ...

films designed by

Maurice Binder Maurice Binder (December 4, 1918 – April 9, 1991) was an American film title designer best known for his work on 16 James Bond films, including the first, '' Dr. No'' (1962), and for Stanley Donen's films from 1958. Early work Binder was born ...

—specifically 1965's '' Thunderball'', complete with multiple colored backgrounds, silhouetted figures, and "wavy" text. The song itself was a pastiche of songs used during James Bond title sequences, complete with an orchestra (conducted by

Bill Conti William Conti (born April 13, 1942) is an American composer and conductor. He is best known for his film scores, including ''Rocky'' (1976), '' Rocky II'' (1979), '' Rocky III'' (1982), '' Rocky V'' (1990), '' Rocky Balboa'' (2006), '' The Karat ...

, who composed the music for the 1981 Bond film '' For Your Eyes Only'') and spy-themed lyrics. An

urban legend Urban legend (sometimes modern legend, urban myth, or simply legend) is a genre of folklore concerning stories about an unusual (usually scary) or humorous event that many people believe to be true but largely are not. These legends can be e ...

states that during the recording of the

theme Theme or themes may refer to: * Theme (Byzantine district), an administrative district in the Byzantine Empire governed by a Strategos * Theme (computing), a custom graphical appearance for certain software. * Theme (linguistics), topic * Theme ( ...

to ''Thunderball'',

Tom Jones Tom Jones may refer to: Arts and entertainment *Tom Jones (singer) (born 1940), Welsh singer *Tom Jones (writer) (1928–2023), American librettist and lyricist *''The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling'', a novel by Henry Fielding published in 1 ...

held the song's final note long enough to pass out; in this film, Yankovic holds it long enough to make his head explode. Originally, Yankovic had planned to loop the note to the required length, but in the studio, he discovered he was able to hold the note long enough that no looping was required. During the music video, Yankovic interacts with the titles twice. The first time occurs when the film's title is smacked away by Yankovic as he rises up into the shot. The second time, Yankovic glances towards his name as he is credited for the opening titles, proudly smirking immediately after. These are the only titles to appear in the video included on music video collections. The sequence was later included on ''"Weird Al" Yankovic: The Videos'', then again on ''"Weird Al" Yankovic: The Ultimate Video Collection''. While he had permission to include the title sequence (which he had directed), he did not have permission to use the actual printed credits from the film. Therefore, all names and titles had to be taken out, thus making the video slightly confusing, looking like Yankovic was smacking thin air and glancing at nothing and smirking for no reason (this is the version Yankovic has on his YouTube channel). When released on ''"Weird Al" Yankovic: The Ultimate Video Collection'' the title of the film and his credit were put back in. Another version of the opening title sequence was released that contained multiple clips from the actual film.

End credits version

There is an alternate version of the song, which is played during the end credits of ''Spy Hard'' where the lyrics are changed from "The name of this movie is ''Spy Hard'' / They call it ''Spy Hard'' / You're watching ''Spy Hard'' / It's the theme from ''Spy Hard!''" to "The name of this movie was ''Spy Hard'' / They called it ''Spy Hard'' / You just saw ''Spy Hard'' / It's the end of ''Spy Hard!''" This version has never been commercially released.

References

{{Authority control "Weird Al" Yankovic songs 1996 singles Songs about spies James Bond parodies Music videos directed by "Weird Al" Yankovic Songs written by "Weird Al" Yankovic Songs written for films 1996 songs Scotti Brothers Records singles

Music video

End credits version

See also

References